Andy T

Oh right, I didn't think there was much more to the caliper internally than the piston & seals? Starting to think it would of been a better idea to get a new one though as a new piston & seals is nearly £20!

Does that way round work? I tried the footpump connected to the inlet union and it just wouldnt move the piston, even at 70 psi! must be well seized in!

Had more luck with VW at old Trafford, got 2 repair kits ordered (one for slider bellows, other for caliper rebuild) came to £36 for both wheels, cheaper than new calipers I guess! Took the Caliper off last night, one slider bellow was ripped but there was still grease in there and they both seemed to slide in the carrier bore easily. I then pulled back the caliper piston dust seal - lots of corrosion under there so i'll be doing a full rebuild & paint - just hope I don't need new pistons! Did a search on here but can't find anything about rebuilding calipers. Checked my haynes mk2 & lynsday porter manual, the haynes has the method but the tricky bit seems to be getting the piston out - it suggests using an air foot pump but then i've got to make some sort of adaptor to fit the brake pipe inlet! Has anybody any tips! p.s. Are G60 ABS brakes bled in the same way as non-ABS mk2 gti rakes, or do you/should you bleed the ABS unit? Cheers

Does anyone know the VAG part number for the repair kit? I went to my nearest VW in Oldham and they told me they didn't sell one (probably too lazy to look on the screen) I tried brakes International but they have no stock and say it only includes the rubber seals and gaiters, no slider pins - what exactly do you get in the VW kit? cheers

off to VW it is then... I reckon in alot of instances its laziness on the part of the garage, they'd rather fit new parts than mess around repairing existing parts even if its quicker/cheaper to do so. And also take opportunity make more money by charging retail/dealer prices on the parts!

Thanks Guys, yep looks like I need to strip and rebuild. I think some of the slider rubber boots were perishing, and I have a habit of washing the car then leaving it standing for two days, maybe water is getting in the sliders. Sounds like VW do repair kits for the sliders, do they do them for the calipers aswell?

The other day I got home after the work run and noticed there was a small cloud of smoke coming from the n/s front wheel every now and again. it didn't seem to be coming from any where on the engine, and the brake caliper & road wheel on that side were blisteringly hot, wheras on the otherside it was barely warm at all. This happened again this morning after braking from 80mph into a tailback on the motorway, smoke & a nasty burning smell, just from the n/s wheel. I replaced the brake discs with genuine ones about 12 months ago myself along with Pagid Fast Road Pads (I only drive about 10k a year) the calipers looked ok at the time, apart from some play in the slider pins. I also noticed a couple of weeks back that I was getting bad brake fade which Isnt supposed to happen with these Fast Road Pads...? Does anybody have any ideas, am I looking at a seized caliper, faulty pads, warped disc or something else? Cheers.

brilliant, I'll get those sorted first then! looks like the main earth strap is crimped straight on to the -ive battery terminal/clamp, do you replace the whole lot or crimp the new one onto the old terminal?

Only just seen your reply! cheers for the offer. Car was running fine for 3 days with lambda probe reconnected, then last night it went back to rough running after about 40 mins driving! Disconnected it again and ran ok. But this morning it was running very lumpy for first ten minutes, so seems I have another problem(or a related one!) it sounded like a very constant misfire from one cylinder, any clues? Going to replace/clean earths, check all wiring and fit new blue temp sender this weekend.. does anyone know how many main earth straps are on a g60? cheers

Still got the problem, running ok with probe disconnected, not had the time to do some proper investigation yet

Your g60 should run fine without the lambda(as my car is at the mo), limp mode fuels ok and I get about 30mpg! sounds like there is a problem elsewhere in the loom if it is overfuelling, sound like the ecu is NOT in limp mode i.e. it still thinks there is a probe connected, short circuit somewhere? Definately get a genuine probe if you can (about £75 from AVS) the cheap univ ones are made of crap metal and won't last very long at all

Easiest way to test this is to use a jump lead... Never thought of that, thanks!

Cheers guys... The lambda earth is ok I cleaned it up last time and also ran new earth wire from that point up to the earthing point on the o/s strut tower. I haven't checked those microswitches though, might also try fitting temporary extra battery-engine/gearbox earth cable to see if that makes any difference

Isn't this something to do with offsets? Does the VR have a fatter hub that requires larger offset wheels (i'm sure VR6 speedlines are ET43 or something, as opposed to 4 stud rado's which have ET33-35 wheels? The mk3 golf used ET45 wheels as opposed to the mk2 that was ET35

Ran the car yesterday with the lambda probe unplugged and the car ran fine.. connected it back up this morning and it was back to rough running after 10 minutes driving So am I looking at a newish but faulty lambda probe, faulty wiring, or could it still be to do with the blue temp sender? When the lambda is disconnected, are there any other sensors that are ignored, i.e. blue temp sender? Cheers

The G60 started getting lumpy and a little jerky on accel/deccel this morning in heavy rain, but was ok for first ten minutes. Driving home tonight in the dry was ok for first ten minutes (motorway), then same happens again! When I got home I noticed the exhaust was a little black but no black smoke when idling or driving. I unplugged the blue temp sender (revs dropped a little) which seemed to sort the problem out, plugged it back in again and it still ran ok, then I increased the revs slowly and everything was nice and smooth, until 4k, when it started spluttering/misfiring and the revs decreased to 3.5k even though i'd held the throttle in the same place! It then idled roughly as before. Went through the same procedure again and it was exactly the same each time - Unplugging/re-plugging blue sender cures it, but revving over 4k brings back the lumpiness! The ECU-TB hose & Lambda probe were replaced last summer (genuine parts) with new lambda earth lead/wiring checked etc. Just replaced dist. cap & rotor, although the plug leads are the originals. Anybody any clues? I'll replace the blue temp sender but I got a feeling it won't be that easy! Thanks for any help,

I've got a feeling that most garages only replace the outer rear wheel bearing (which is a press fit in the brake disc) but there is another bearing further back on the spindle (why probably explains why most corrado's have noisy rear bearings only a short time after having them 'replaced' by a garage... I think you can buy rear discs with the bearings already pressed in which would make the job alot easier. I think you would need a power press! Never done the fronts but I think the hub has to come off and the bearing has to be pressed out of it with a fly/power press and the new one pressed in squarely, they are a very tight fit not something you can do without the proper equipment.

Totally agree its also always worth rubbing down both mating surfaces with emery cloth or a grindstone to remove any burrs or deposits. Mine were mounted correctly and hadn't warped either but were still bloody awful because of the uneven (grooved) wear of disc & pads caused by too much drilling

When I got my g60 it had drilled discs on, they wore unevenly, braking was crap and they vibrated like hell, was glad to go back to std VAG discss. Not sure what make the drilled ones were but they had WAY too many holes, look at porsche discs - they only have a few holes in sparse patterns... I would go for Brembo, or Brembo grooved (sadly only available for VR6 5-stud and not G60 (4-stud)

Nice, thats where i've got my recaro's from, a '93 VR6 Auto! The kickdown is good, if you prod the throttle quick enough you (dont even need to full throttle) it will drop two gears and fly! it doesnt change up until the red line either! Only thing is , it sometimes stalls on multi-storey car park ramps, embarassing!

What C have you bought? I wondered if it was something to do with the seats being symmetrical so they could be fitted to both sides of the car, but I havent had a proper look yet. My passenger seat will lift but not go down, I swopped the switch with one from the drivers side and it works ok. I have opened up the faulty switch but so far cannot see what is wrong with it. Its a 'VW' switch with VW part number, might ring the dealer for a price for a good laugh!

I had a bad experience with powerflow last year when I took my G60 in to have its existing stainless system (possibly powerflow) quietened down, it sounded like a straight through exhaust. Two trips there and £150 later , it was louder than before, the solid rubber hangers they fitted kept breaking, and the previously fine tailpipe melted part of the rear bumper(the tailpipe shifted to the side as the system warmed up and expanded.) They said they couldnt get it any quieter unless I laid out another £150 and couldn't even guarantee that it would work, and blamed the burnt bumper on the engine mounts - yeah right! I junked it and bought another custom system second hand, fitted it myself using the proper VW hangers, been perfect in every way since!

heres my geometric black recaro's.... only a quick pic as it was rain-snowing (again!)

Totally agree, you've got the expansion of the wheels/brake setup, wheel flex under load, brake pad thickness, tolerances, etc. etc. !

the click will probably be the solenoid, if you keep pressing the buttons it will clean the copper contacts and may start to work. be careful when you open up the switch, its easy to damage the copper tracks on edges of the pcb. if the little copper 'dumbells' are corroded too, just spin them around with a screwdriver to expose a clean side.